The King's Gaze stirred in Xavier's mind, its alien voice carrying notes of fascination. Elegant solution. The Flameheart patriarch created a metaphysical shell game—consciousness here, soul there, body hosting a third entity entirely. No wonder the girl's power feels wrong. She's channeling abilities that belong to someone else.
"Shut up," Xavier whispered, but his voice carried no heat. The revelation left him hollow, scraping against emotions he didn't want to examine. A cold emptiness spread through his chest like frost across a window pane.
Calypso wasn't just trapped in someone else's body. She was wearing the stolen skin of a child who'd been magically lobotomized to protect her from monsters. A tremor started in his gut, a violent, nauseating shudder that had nothing to do with illness. It was the physical rejection of a truth his body couldn't stomach.
